Bracketology Tuesdays are back. Each week, we will provide an update on Louisville’s resume and let you know where the Cards are currently projected online by the top bracketology sites.
Resume:
Overall Record: 9-3
ACC record: 4-2
Quadrant 1 record: 1-2
Quadrant 2: 3-1
AP Poll: Unranked
NCAA NET Rankings: 42
KenPom: 39
Sagarin: 33
Torvik: 59
Good Wins: Virginia Tech
Bad Losses: Miami (FL)
The resume for Louisville is bare, to say the least. Its lone opportunity for a resume-defining win was at Wisconsin in December. The Cards got ran out of the gym that day, but were missing Carlik Jones. Virginia Tech was ranked at the time, but the Hokies have since dropped out. That is still a quadrant 1 win as things stand.
Much like last season, the ACC is significantly down, and therefore there will be a lack of opportunities for Louisville to dramatically improve its resume. The Cards still have two games left against both Duke and UVA, as well as a return game at Virginia Tech. Road games at Clemson and North Carolina will likely be in quadrant 1 as well. That is over half of the remaining schedule for the Cards. Louisville probably needs to go 4-3 or 5-2 in those seven games, while also avoiding any other losses if it wants to get a top-4 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Louisville Bracket Projections as of 1/19 (Links Included)
ESPN: 7 seed playing Florida
CBS: 6 seed playing Michigan State
FOX: 4 seed playing Toledo
SB Nation: 8 seed playing BYU
Three Man Weave: 6 seed playing Drake
Heat Check CBB: 4 seed playing Toledo (last updated 1/15)
TeamRankings: 8 seed (30th overall)
BracketMatrix Aggregator: 6 seed (22nd overall)
ACC Bracketology:
The ACC might be down at the top, but there are still at least 10 teams still in the mix for an NCAA tournament berth. There are still six weeks left in the regular season, so things will probably work themselves out before Selection Sunday. The majority of power conferences teams played a limited non-conference schedule, so league records will be even more important in 2021. There will also be a ton of week-to-week movement compared to most seasons. As of right now, this is how I see things going for the ACC.
Locks: Virginia
Almost Locks: Florida State, Louisville, Clemson
Probably In: Virginia Tech, Duke
On the Bubble: North Carolina, Pittsburgh, NC State
Work to Do: Georgia Tech, Syracuse
